C. J. Barry - Unearthed 01, page 22
Then her gaze settled on one. It showed a man wearing a pointed cap and side veils, holding a small girl in his arms. She was beautiful and delicate. In her little hands, she held up a round object that hung around the man’s neck. Five sunburst spokes extruded through a circular ring with the bottom spoke substantially longer than the others.
Tess’s mouth dropped open. “Cohl?”
“Hmm?” He leaned toward her.
“Is this the amulet?”
“Damn.” Cohl bent down and blew the dirt off the carving to get a better look. “That’s it. And I’ll bet that’s one of Demisie’s rulers.”
“And his daughter,” Tess finished.
Cohl nodded. “Yes. Strong resemblance.”
“I don’t get it. Look at these pictures. They all appear so happy. What could have happened?” she mused, glancing at the ruins.
“It must have been something catastrophic.” Cohl pulled out the data pad and waved it over the reliefs one by one. “I’m going to scan the images into the data pad and analyze them later.”
While he scanned, she squinted at the carving of the dancers. Something was wrong with the building behind them.
“Cohl. The giant faces aren’t here. They are missing,” she gasped.
He paused in the process of stowing the data pad. She watched his mouth set into a grim line as he examined the picture. “They must have been built later.”
Tess turned her palms up. “Why? You said they watch all who enter. So who were they suddenly watching for?”
Cohl rose to his feet and resettled his pack. “Let’s keep moving. Maybe the next marker will give us some answers.”
She followed as he led the way through the piles of rubble, down what Tess assumed was once a main street. Small rodents scattered as she and Cohl climbed over stones through the maze that had been homes. Every once in a while, she had to stop. The tragedy was too great. Within these walls had once been children and laughter, arguments and loving. Now all that was left were the dust of bones.
The breeze had returned to its fickle ways, blowing debris around in circles. The air grew spicier and more humid with every passing minute. It wasn’t long before she had swept up her hair and tied it into a pony tail. Perspiration was already soaking her clothes. Tess was grateful for Cohl’s foresight in the lightweight shorts and tops they wore.
As the red sun climbed into the sky, the ruins gave way to a forest of tall, leggy trees.
Cohl moved ahead of her with powerful ease despite the pack that she suspected weighed much more than hers. He reminded her of the surefooted grace of a big cat, well equipped with its package of thick, smooth muscles and effortless strength. She watched his appealing tush beneath the heavy pack and cocked her head to the side. A wicked smile bloomed.
“You have great legs, you know that? In fact, it’s a darn nice view from back here.”
He cast a lingering look over his shoulder, zeroing in on where her straps cut around her breasts, but continued his hard, steady pace. “Keep that up and you’ll be on your back in the dirt.”
Tess laughed and shook her head. “I forget how little encouragement you need.”
He shot her a promising smile but that was all. Back to business. A small wave of disappointment swept through her.
The road ahead narrowed and entire sections disappeared beneath an avalanche of ground cover. They hiked in silence as the street became a path and the path became a broken trail. The sunlight filtered through the thick canopy and speckled the ground below. A warm breeze pumped around them.
Tess looked up and saw a familiar face staring back at her from a tree trunk.
“Cohl.”
Without breaking a step, he replied, “I see them. We must be heading in the right direction.”
“Trail markers,” she said with sudden understanding. “Spooky but effective.” She shrugged off the uncomfortable feeling of their hard, dead stare.
The forest was considerably quieter during the day then it had been at dusk last evening. Under the crowded canopy, nothing moved except for an occasional creepy-crawly thing that scuttled across their path. She hated those little critters that could sneak up on you without warning. At least you knew when the big creatures were nearby.
Something rustled overhead to their right. Cohl swung his rifle up toward the sound with startling speed and waited. Tess froze behind him, only her eyes following the direction of his weapon. High above them hung some kind of nest, attached in four places to the tall trees. It swayed gently in the breeze, dark against the blue-green leaves.
Cohl lowered his weapon and scanned the rest of the canopy in complete concentration.
“A nest?” Tess whispered.
He nodded but his tone was grave. “Probably. I didn’t notice it before.”
Tess didn’t like the sound of that. She doubted Cohl missed much now that he was in adventuring mode. “What do you think is in there?”
Cohl started back down the path, more slowly this time, his rifle ready. “Do you really want to guess?”
She gave a shudder as she fell into step behind him once again. “No. This place gives me the creeps. I always feel like I’m being watched or followed or”
A high shrill scream over her head cut through her sentence. She looked up as the nest swooped directly toward her with terrifying speed. A single glassy eye at its heart hypnotized her.
Suddenly, Cohl yanked her by the arm and out of the way. She stumbled past him to the forest floor, rolled once, and looked up just in time to watch him pump laserfire into the nest that had come alive. It hit the ground with a savage snarl and rose to four legs, swaying and screaming. Tess grimaced as the primal, wrenching sound of a dying animal echoed through the forest. The beast managed to walk a few feet toward Cohl, absorbing hit after hit from the rifle before it finally succumbed into a heap of charred, thatchlike fur. The smell of burnt flesh wafted her way.
Cohl fired a few more rounds to make sure it was down, then waltzed over and hauled her to her feet.
“Sorry that took so long. I had a hell of a time hitting a vital organ. Are you okay?” he asked as he casually brushed some dirt off her shirt.
She realized her mouth had probably been open for some time now. “You know, nests never attack us back on Earth. What was that thing?”
His attention was already elsewhere, scanning the upper canopy. “I can tell you with absolute certainty that it wasn’t a nest.”
“Thank you for that breaking news flash,” she snapped and rubbed her forehead where a nasty little headache had just formed directly over the scared-shitless part of her bram.
“We better keep moving,” he said dryly. “Watch for any more nests. I’ll bet those things can move pretty fast along the tree line. We’ll take them out before they jump us.”
Much as she hated to, Tess pulled out the laser pistol that Cohl had stowed in her pack. “How did the Demisians live with those things? I mean, look how long it took you to kill it. I don’t think they had laser guns.”
Walking ahead, he answered over his shoulder, “Every planet has its predators and prey. A food chain.”
Tess shot a glance up at the red sun peeking though the leaves directly overhead. “What happens when it gets dark and we can’t see them dropping?”
He hesitated just long enough so she realized he didn’t have a good answer for her.
“Hopefully, we’ll be out of the forest before nightfall. We can’t sleep under these trees, that’s for sure.”
“Who would sleep?” she whispered, looking around.
Far ahead in a small clearing, a single ray of sunlight lit a tall, dark column that stood just off the path.
“The second marker?” she asked as they drew near.
Cohl pulled out the data pad and handed it to her. “Looks like it. Use the data pad to scan the images while I keep a watch above us. We’ll take a closer look at the reliefs later.”
Tess accepted the data pad and approached the stone pillar with respectful awe. It rose out of the forest floor like an old gravestone. Identical to the first one, it was cut from a single slab of red stone, around twenty feet high with a series of reliefs on the front. She pulled back some climbing vines to get a look at the finely etched pictures.
“What can you see?” Cohl urged, his back to her as he stood guard.
Tess frowned, trying to make sense of the weathered depictions. “The king appears upset, anguished, his head in his hands. All the people are crying around him. The only good news is that he’s still wearing the amulet.” She moved onto the next one. “This one shows an army. I think they are searching for something.” She quickly scanned the others as something unholy gripped her. “Cohl, I don’t see the little girl in any of these pictures. I think something happened to her.”
Cohl asked, “Does it show a funeral? A burial?”
Tess cleared some more vines. “No. She’s just not there. I think they are searching for her. Maybe she got lost.”
“Or kidnapped,” Cohl added grimly.
Tess stood back from the pillar. “How awful. Her father and the people look devastated. The pictures are so desperate and solemn. Not like the first ones. There’s no dancing in these.” She glanced at Cohl’s serious profile. “Do you think it had something to do with the collapse of the civilization?”
“I have a distinct feeling we’ll find the answer to that on the next marker,” he answered. “Scan the images, Tess. We need to keep moving.”
She worked quickly, now anxious to find the third marker to see if the father ever found his beloved daughter. Although deep down she already knew the answer, she just didn’t want to admit it.
Cohl took the lead again when she had finished. They trudged along the path while the red sun began its slow slide down the sky.
“Tell me about your family,” Cohl asked, breaking the silence.
Tess was momentarily taken aback by his casual request.
“I thought you and Pitz already dug up everything there was to know about me,” she said, unable to resist a little dig herself.
“I want to hear it from you.”
She shrugged. Her life was boring as hell compared to his. It wouldn’t be her fault if he fell asleep listening to it. She stepped over a big root in her path and began with her brother who lived in New Jersey and worked ungodly hours as a V.P. at a major marketing firm. Then she moved on to her sister who had the smarts to leave snow country and settle south in North Carolina with her husband and two kids.
Then Tess proceeded to tell him about their childhood and her parents, Christmases with more love than presents, warm summer nights spent catching fireflies. One memory ran into another until she realized she’d been talking nonstop for a very long time. And Cohl hadn’t said a word, not shared a single family memory of his own. It struck her sadly that perhaps he didn’t have any to share.
“Do you miss them?” he finally asked after she’d halted her life story.
She shrugged and answered honestly, “We only speak on the phone every few months and I haven’t seen them in years. They have families now, it’s harder for them to travel. And I’m always too busy working to take time off to visit.”
She smirked. “However, they were on the same planet. There’s something oddly comforting about that.”
Coh! nodded. “I imagine you’ll be happy to get back home then.”
She nearly lost a step at his cool response. It was the first time since they had argued in the shuttle bay that he talked about her leaving. A cold sense of dread descended over her.
She would help him. He would return her to Earth. That was the original agreement but now she wasn’t so sure that’s what she really wanted.
She shook her head hard. Of course, that’s what she wanted. She had a life back on Earth, a promising singing future, a slew of friends and family. Everything she knew and loved was there on that little planet. Well. Almost everything she loved.
It took all her willpower to focus on the path as she navigated through the threat of tears. Even if she wanted to stay with Cohl, he hadn’t asked. And she knew he wouldn’t. He was more than ready to send her back. She couldn’t very well stay with a man who didn’t want her around on a permanent basis. If this was all she could get from him in the short time they had left, then she’d take it and stow away the memories of his passion and power.
How could she have let this happen? Get in this deep? So deep that getting out unscathed would be impossible? What kind of idiot falls for a man who lives on the other side of the galaxyworlds away?
She blinked quickly. Looked like she was the only one foolish enough to fall in love.
Abruptly, the canopy thinned and the ground cover deepened in the open patches of sunlight.
And where the forest gave way to an open meadow, stood the third marker.
* * *
Chapter Seventeen
Cohl hadn’t needed to see the last series of reliefs to tell him the tragic turn the Demisian civilization had taken. He’d known the minute Tess noticed the young daughter missing on the last marker. He shielded his eyes from the sun’s direct glare as he stepped out of the forest.
The marker stood in silent vigil on the edge of a flat, grassy field. Pink-tinged mountains in the far distance set a stunning backdrop to a single, lonely mark of Man.
Running past him, Tess reached the marker first. She scanned the pictures frantically. Then her shoulders slumped. Her hand was flat against the red stone when he came up behind her.
“She’s not here. They didn’t find her,” Tess whispered. She pointed to a burial scene, a portrait of mourners and death. “And look. The king died.” Her voice cracked. “Oh, he never found her, Cohl. His heart must have broken. I wonder if his death was related to her disappearance. Maybe he couldn’t bear to live without her.”
“Possibly. We’ll never know for certain. I doubt there will be many more clues left besides these markers.”
Cohl studied the funeral scene; the king laid out before the multitude of mourners. The amulet was nowhere to be seen. The next scene depicted the war and destruction that apparently followed the king’s death.
“Power struggle,” he murmured.
Tess’s voice sounded fragile as she stared at the past. “Do you think that’s what triggered the war?”
“I’m sure that was part of it. Wars have been waged for less than that,” Cohl replied. His eyes followed Demisie’s tragic history, forever captured in stone. The next scene displayed a line of robed figures walking out of the forest. The same robed figures that guarded the entrance. Cohl moved in for a closer look. The leader held the amulet in his hands while the city burned behind him.
“Guardians,” he said quietly. “They watch all who enter.”
He cast a quick glance back into the forest. “They came right through here, probably on this very path, with the amulet.”
“To hide it?” Tess offered.
“Must be. Maybe they felt its power was too dangerous or that no other leader should wear it,” Cohl surmised.
“Or perhaps they were waiting for someone to save them,” Tess said gently. “That’s when they built the faces and these markers. But no one came.” She gazed over the silent fields. “And they died waiting.”
Cohl took a deep breath. What a mess. He turned to Tess and watched two giant tears roll down her cheeks. He drew her into the circle of his arms. She sobbed quietly against him as he stroked her hair.
“It’s all right,” he soothed her. “It is history now. No more suffering.”
Even as he said it, he couldn’t pull his gaze away from the marker. Rarely in his career of adventuring had he given much thought to the events leading up to how the treasure came to be “protected” by its own people. He had never contemplated why a civilization had disappeared or what had transpired to bring a people to such desperation that they would go to great lengths to preserve part of themselves from oblivion.
Demisie’s civilization had crumbled in a ruler transition. There had indeed been massive suffering as each and every person on this world died and disappeared without memory. Nothing but a rock to mark their passing. He held Tess closer. Her softness must be rubbing off on him.
She regained her composure and brushed the tears from her face. “You warned me. I just wasn’t ready for anything like this.”
Almost reluctantly, Cohl released her and cleared his throat. “Me neither.”
Tess wiped her hands on her shorts and looked at him expectantly. “Now what?”
Cohl retrieved the data pad and calculated their trek thus far from marker to marker. Despite the twists and turns of the path, they were traveling in a relatively straight line across the countryside.
He surveyed the terrain and pointed toward a far mountain. “That way.”
One day had passed and, Nish hoped, one step closer to the final moves of the game.
Before him, Rommol paced the bridge in long, angry strides, venting the lack of progress on the nearest sacrifice. His mood had been brutal since entering the red mist cloaking both Demisie and his bitter blood enemy, Gothyk. Every officer scoured the disoriented scanners for a glimpse of Gothyk’s ship.
Nish alone stood behind Rommol and endured the wrath of the child while the bridge crew busied themselves in an obvious effort to avoid becoming the target of the next outburst.
But as Rommol’s mood blackened, Nish’s became lighter, more powerful, and less tolerant of the childish behavior. Although his body still bore the badges of age, Nish trembled beneath his guise with the energy of youth and its surly audacity. The visions were now attainable on command at any time, in any place aboard the ship. All he needed to do was wish it. Even in his prime of youth, the gift had never been so blessedly easy.
Rommol made another glowering pass. Nish gave a silent sigh and closed his eyes. Then he let the vision come. It sharpened obediently on the bridge aboard Gothyk’s ship.
In the viewport, Demisie glowed brilliantly. Nish inhaled sharply, nearly severing his vision. So breathtaking. He could barely contain his growing excitement and the itch of energy with no outlet. Gothyk had found Demisie and very soon, Nish would set foot upon his ancestors’ soil. All the players would finally be together.
